FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 

 far better. The billet is a fish which comes at your bait with a quick bold 

 tug like a barbel, and the weight of the lead helps materially to fix the 

 hook in his mouth. I intend to try his plan next time I fish with a ledger 

 for barbel, and to use a slightly heavier bullet than usual. Before fishing 

 a barbel swim it is usual to get a reliable professional fisherman to bait 

 it well for you with lobs which you have sent him from Messrs W. Wells 

 and Co., of Sussex Street, Nottingham, who have customers for lobs 

 and other worms in all parts of the country. Mr A. E. Hobbs, the very 

 popular hon. sec. of the Henley-on-Thames Angling Association, one of 

 the best all-round anglers living, says that he prefers to bait his barbel 

 swims two, or even three, mornings before he fishes, using 1,500 whole 

 worms, not cut up, as is the usual way, and retaining 500 to fish with and 

 ground -bait with occasionally. He sinks his worms in hollow clay balls, 

 or in soft brown paper bags with a large stone inside at each corner, a 

 bit of which comer is torn off, the mouth of the bag is then screwed up 

 slightly and the bags dropped in so that they will go down and rest where 

 you wish the worms to work out. I should have imagined that the action 

 of the stream would hardly be sufficient to break up the paper and release 

 the worms, but Mr Hobbs is too practical an angler not to have satisfied 

 himself on that point. 



Another bait and ground -bait for barbel is greaves, the refuse material 

 in tallow making or melting, to be got in cakes at the tallow chandlers. 



Some anglers boil or scald the greaves, or *' scratchings " as they are 

 also called, but Mr Hobbs says this unpleasant process is unnecessary — 

 if the cakes are broken up and thoroughly soaked before use, picking out 

 the best pieces for the hook bait and using the rest to ground bait with. 

 I would always use a dead bait, or a paste of some kind, or stufE like greaves 

 sooner than live bait, if the result was likely to be successful. But there 

 is no doubt that, although barbel will take greaves greedily at times, 

 the ground baiting must not be overdone, or they will be sickened and put 

 quite off the feed. Moses Browne, writing of Thames barbel fishing about 

 160 years ago, says that ** Graves, which are the sediment of tallow melted 

 for the making of candles cut into pieces, are an excellent ground bait 

 for barbel, gudgeon, and many other fish, if thrown in the night before 

 you fish." Walton says sheeps' tallow and soft cheese beaten or worked 

 into a paste is a "choicely good" bait for barbel in August; he also 

 recommends toasted cheese — and I believe the record Thames barbel 

 was taken on a bit of fried bacon, and, when you come to think of it, 

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